O.C. Youth Found Guilty of Vehicular Manslaughter

In a case that captured the attention of Southern California and provoked debate among teens, their parents and a community, an Orange County judge Thursday convicted 18-year-old Jason Rausch of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for an accident that killed a classmate and seriously injured two others last year.

But, saying he was entitled “to every reasonable doubt,” Superior Court Judge Everett Dickey acquitted Rausch of gross negligence and of driving recklessly when the vehicle carrying nine of his classmates from Newport Harbor High School flipped and crashed on a hilly road last May 23.

Rausch faces a maximum of one year in jail when he is sentenced March 27.

“We’re very pleased and we feel this was the appropriate result and one that the prosecutor should have originally sought,” Rausch’s attorney, Jennifer Keller, said. “Jason is just very relieved.”

Rausch sat shaking as he waited for the judge’s decision, which came after a daylong court trial before Dickey without a jury or any witnesses. After the judge announced his verdict, the teenager whispered “Thank God” to his attorney.

After Dickey left the bench, Rausch hugged Keller, exhaled deeply, then walked over to his family where he was hugged tightly by his tearful mother.

But only yards away, there was a far different reaction from the mother of Donny Bridgman, an 18-year-old classmate killed in the crash.

“He knows what happened, and I know what happened,” Vickie Bridgman said, pointing to Rausch.

The accident led to deep divisions among families of the teenagers involved in the crash and among community members about Rausch’s culpability. It also lead to numerous civil lawsuits against the city of Newport Beach and to some celebrity for one of the victims, Amanda Arthur, who awoke after 11 weeks in a coma and was subsequently named homecoming queen.

The night of the accident, the group of students from Newport Harbor High had just left a party and piled into a 1989 Chevy Blazer. Rausch, the designated driver who had not been drinking, was behind the wheel. On a sharp curve on Irvine Avenue, the speeding Blazer flipped and rolled at least twice. Eight teens were thrown to the pavement; Bridgman was killed, and Arthur and Daniel Townsend were injured.

Police said Rausch had been driving at 63 mph, far in excess of the 35 mph speed limit. Only two of the passengers were wearing seat belts.

An Orange County sheriff’s deputy had stopped the Blazer earlier that night, questioned Rausch, looked in the car and found cans of beer. He made the teenagers pour out the beer then let them leave on their own. The teens then went to a liquor store and used false identifications to buy more beer. They then headed to a park to drink and listen to music.

Prosecutor Dutton told Dickey that being stopped by the sheriff’s deputy was one of several “red flags” that should have alerted Rausch to drive more safely. He said Rausch drove like a “crazy man” as he approached the final curve in the road.

“He drove like there was no tomorrow, and there was no tomorrow for Donny Bridgman,” Dutton said during his closing argument.

But Dickey said he was unable to find evidence that Rausch showed “wanton disregard” for the lives of his friends.

“This court cannot find reckless driving, even though I think speeding was the primary contributing factor,” Dickey said.

The judge said he did not give much weight to the prosecution’s contention that Rausch was twice warned to slow down by one of the males in the car. Dickey said there was “loud noise and too much excitement” in the car. The judge also discounted the testimony of passengers who had been drinking that night.

“When people are drinking, their powers of observation and perception are affected,” he said.

Dickey said he believed the defenses’ argument that Rausch’s lack of familiarity with the vehicle, which belonged to Bridgman, was a contributing factor.

“I believe if Mr. Rausch had been driving his own Volkswagen at the speed he was driving the Blazer, he probably would have been able to avoid the accident.”

The judge also took into consideration that the Blazer was a “high-risk roll-over vehicle” that was overloaded that night.

Dutton said he respected the decision but didn’t agree with it.

“I strongly felt it was a gross negligence case,” he said. “I felt we put on a case as best we could, and it’s his decision.”

The attorney general’s office stepped in to handle the case because Bridgman’s mother is a prosecutor for the Orange County district attorney’s office, the agency that would have normally handled the prosecution.

Outside court, Vickie Bridgman stood with her daughter and friend Diana Townsend, mother of Daniel Townsend. She said she was grateful to the attorney general’s office and said they did a good job.

“I knew the court proceedings wouldn’t bring my son back,” Bridgman said. “We’re still miserable, and we’re still grieving.”

Bridgman had made an emotional plea to the judge in December to have Rausch bound over for trial on the felony charge. But the judge had reduced the charge to a misdemeanor.

On Thursday, he ruled that Rausch was not guilty of the gross negligence portion of the misdemeanor manslaughter charge nor of two misdemeanor counts of reckless driving causing bodily injury. Rausch could have faced a maximum of two years in jail.

“This accident was obviously preventable,” Bridgman said Thursday. “God knows what the truth is; Jason knows what the truth is, and my son is still dead.”

Keller said she hopes her client won’t do any time in jail.

“It wouldn’t serve any purpose,” she said. “He doesn’t need to be punished. He’s punishing himself.”

Keller said Rausch continues to visit Arthur frequently. The high school cheerleader remains in intensive treatment for a potentially permanent brain injury. Her mother, Chris Maese, had supported the judge’s decision last December to reduce the felony charge.

“This whole thing has been a nightmare for him, and it will continue to be always,” Keller said. “That’s what people don’t understand. It will never be over for him.”

Greg Hernandez can be reached at (714) 564-1037 or e-mailed at greg.hernandez@latimes.com